The U.S. is co-sponsoring a draft Security Council resolution along with Spain and Britain asking the world body to follow suit to hasten the war-torn country's reconstruction.

"The regime that the sanctions were directed against no longer rules Iraq," U.S. President George Bush said Wednesday at a White House news conference with Spanish Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar, a strong U.S. ally in the Iraq war.

Makes sense, right?

Not according to France and Russia:

Both Bush and Aznar expressed optimism that the Security Council will end sanctions on Iraq, despite reservations by two permanent members of the council, Russia and France, who also opposed military action before the war.

Moscow and Paris fear an end to sanctions would effectively hand control of Iraq's immense oil reserves to the United States. They also say U.N. inspection teams should resume its work in verifying Iraqi disarmament.

Is it just me, or is this petty and digusting? These two countries are effectively keeping sanctions from being lifted, continuing to punish the people of Iraq, as an economic maneuver against the U.S.

The rationale behind the sanctions was to punish an outlaw regime, though unfortunately, sanctions tend to punishe the population under a tyrant, rather than the tyrant's regime. But none of the logic behind implementing and mainting the sanctions against Iraq makes sense now. And it's depraved to continue sanctions for any reason other than what they were intended for. In this case, France and Russia want to use sanctions as leverage against the U.S.